THE NEEDIEST CASES

THE NEEDIEST CASES; First Pair of Glasses Is Unexpected Joy

By ADAM GERSHENSON

Published: January 8, 1999

Children often sit close to the television, so Tysha Kinred thought it was no big deal when her 4-year-old son, John, watched ''Barney'' with his face just inches from the screen.

Then she noticed that when he ran around their apartment in Harlem, he frequently bumped into stationary objects, like the washer and dryer.

Just before Christmas, Ms. Kinred took John to get his vision tested at the free optometric clinic at the Frederick Douglass Center on West 104th Street. The clinic opened last May and is the newest addition to the Douglass Center, which has provided health services, as well as educational and recreational opportunities for poor children since 1957. The center is run by the Children's Aid Society, one of seven local charities supported by The New York Times Neediest Cases Fund.

When John arrived at the clinic, his eyes were examined by Dr. Maria Asprogerakas, who teaches at the State College of Optometry, part of the State University of New York, and runs a private practice when she is not working at the clinic.

Dr. Asprogerakas discovered that while John's left eye was fine, he was extremely nearsighted in his right eye, with 20/300 vision. If his problem had not been correctable, she said, John would have been considered legally blind in that eye.

Yesterday, John received new prescription lenses in sleek black frames that left him looking as sophisticated as a 4-year-old can look. Before he scampered off to the center's gymnasium to run around and collect compliments from his friends and teachers in the Head Start program, John took a moment to say, ''I love my glasses.''

The children also love coming to see Dr. Asprogerakas. In the waiting room yesterday, Ciara Henry, 4, could hardly wait for her appointment. Over and over, she put aside her coloring book and wandered to the office doorway to peek in on a friend's examination.

When her turn came, Ciara was not disappointed. Dr. Asprogerakas greeted her by slapping five. She propped her up in the examining chair, and asked about Ciara's Teletubbies sweatshirt. Then Dr. Asprogerakas slipped on a tiny plastic Dalmatian finger puppet and asked Ciara to follow the doggie as she moved it left, right, up and down to test the muscles in Ciara's eyes.

Ciara started to squirm when the doctor helped her cover one eye with a black patch. She fidgeted with her pigtails and made faces while struggling to distinguish between images projected on the wall: a birthday cake, a duck, a man on a horse.

''She doesn't like it, because she knows there is something wrong,'' Dr. Asprogerakas said.

Ciara, who left the office with three stickers from the doctor, needs glasses, Dr. Asprogerakas said. She will have to come back to the clinic to have drops put in her eyes and get more testing done before the appropriate ones are prescribed, she said. Dr. Asprogerakas jokes with her patients, but she takes vision problems seriously. Her own vision problems, farsightedness and astigmatism, were corrected with glasses when she was young. The children who come to her clinic often have eye problems that have worsened because their parents could not locate affordable care.

Nearly 25 percent of the children she sees at the clinic have developed amblyopia, or lazy eye, because of a defect in one eye that has gone untreated. The defect causes the eye to send inaccurate information to the brain, which responds by ignoring the input from that eye; then the eye begins to wander. Every week, Dr. Asprogerakas holds individual training sessions for children with lazy eye; she said the condition can be overcome.

Even children with simpler vision problems suffer when they are not helped. They often struggle to read, or use computers or copy assignments off the blackboard.

Dr. Asprogerakas said she was cautious in prescribing glasses for extremely young children because of recent research that suggests that glasses might actually accelerate the deterioration of their eyesight.

But if a child cannot read a book or the blackboard at the front of the room, Dr. Asprogerakas and the Children's Aid Society make sure that the child gets glasses.

Yesterday, during the children's lunch period, Dr. Asprogerakas took a moment to think about why she enjoys working at the clinic. ''These are my kids,'' she said. ''And we can't have them bumping into walls.''

HOW TO HELP

Checks payable to The New York Times Neediest Cases Fund should be sent to P.O. Box 5193, General Post Office, New York, N.Y. 10087, or any of these

organizations:

BROOKLYN BUREAU OF COMMUNITY SERVICE

285 Schermerhorn Street, Brooklyn, N.Y. 11217.

CATHOLIC CHARITIES OF THE ARCHDIOCESE OF NEW YORK

1011 First Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10022.

CATHOLIC CHARITIES, DIOCESE OF BROOKLYN AND QUEENS

191 Joralemon Street, Brooklyn, N.Y. 11201.

CHILDREN'S AID SOCIETY

105 East 22d Street, New York, N.Y. 10010.

COMMUNITY SERVICE SOCIETY OF NEW YORK

105 East 22d Street, New York, N.Y. 10010.

FEDERATION OF PROTESTANT WELFARE AGENCIES

281 Park Avenue South, New York, N.Y. 10010.

UJA-FEDERATION OF NEW YORK

Church Street Station, P.O. Box 4100, New York, N.Y. 10261-4100

No agents or solicitors are authorized to seek contributions for The New York Times Neediest Cases Fund.

The Times pays the fund's expenses, so all contributions go directly to the charities, which use them to provide services and cash assistance to the poor.

Contributions to the fund are deductible on Federal, state and city income taxes to the extent permitted by law.

To delay may mean to forget.

Previously recorded $4,084,537.49

Recorded yesterday 133,704.23

Total $4,218,241.72

Photo: Dr. Maria Asprogerakas checks the vision of Ciara Henry, 4, at the free eye clinic for children at the Frederick Douglass Center in Manhattan. She said many patients have eye problems that have been neglected. (Marilynn K. Yee/The New York Times)